"8 Million Strong and Voting!" Small business is the heart beat of the United States economy. This blog searches for issues and answers to helping small business survive and thrive in California and the United States.

Monday, December 29, 2014

2015 Updates
The mileage reimbursement rate for business miles is going up to 57.5 cents per
mile. 2014 rate 56 cents.
23 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes.

AB 326
This amends the Labor Code to allow email reporting of fatalities or serious
work related injuries. You are required to report within 8 hours of
becoming aware of an incident.

I am always surprised that employers still don’t know that they are required to
have a written illness and injury prevention program in place. Not only
this, but it must be available to employees, and you must update it and refer
to it in your safety meetings. This is the number one fine that OSHA
gives out and can cost you thousands of dollars if you do not have it available
when you are inspected by OSHA.
Please see the Cal OSHA website for help in developing one. http://www.dir.ca.gov/DOSH/etools/09-031/
It is the end of the year and we all make New Year's resolutions. My
request to you is to make a resolution to contact your Assembly person and
State Senator during the year on small business issues in 2015. We can
make a difference if we get involved. You will continue to get emails
from me outlining small business issues. Just follow up on some of these
issues or pick an issue of your choice.
I would also like to know what issues you think Small Business California
should be looking into. We will be sending out our annual survey in
February and I hope you will take a few minutes to complete this. All the
best to you in the New Year.

Monday, December 22, 2014

Last
week Lori Kammerer and I met with Christine Baker head of the
Department of Industrial Relations and 4 of her staff members. The topic
was the underground economy. Many of you are impacted by the
underground economy where employees are paid on a cash basis thereby
eliminated the cost of taxes and workers compensation. This clearly puts
you at a competitive disadvantage.

The industries targeted by the Labor Enforcement Task Force are
Agriculture where 72% of the businesses looked at were out of compliance
Automotive where 94% were out of compliance
Beauty Salons where 72% were out of compliance
Construction where 81% were out of compliance
Garment where 87% were found out of compliance
Manufacturing where 71% were found out of compliance
Restaurant where 75% were found out of compliance.
Other where 74% were found out of compliance.

Clearly there is a serious problem for compliant businesses in these industries.

I have attached the report for Labor Enforcement Task Force for
2013-2014 and below you will see contact information to report
businesses you know are not compliant. Many of you have told me there
is no follow up when you report these businesses and Christine assures
me they take these complaints seriously.
Please let me know what has been your experience in this area.

Good afternoon Scott, Lori

Thank you for taking the time to meet with us today.
I wanted to send you some follow up information on the Labor Enforcement Task Force (LETF)
We welcome referrals and leads on underground economy activity from both
employers and employees. The public can contact LETF by any of the
following methods:

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Two
bills have been introduced to deal with lawsuits under Americans with
Disabilities Act. They are AB 52 by Gray and AB 54 by Olsen
Small Business California is looking closely at these but we don’t have
a lot of details. It is my understanding they will provide for a fine
of $1000 and give a business 120 days to take care of the violations.
It is not clear who will be opposed but I am sure some in the disability
community will come forth. It is hoped that the $1000 fine will make
this more attractive to many in the disabled community.

January 1 is fast approaching and it will be required that all
businesses to post information about the new sick leave law. The law
will not take effect until July 1 2015 and basically will require 3 days
paid sick leave for all employees. What is important for you to know is
that employees start accruing sick leave from the date of hire not at
the end of 90 days when they become eligible for sick leave. If you want
the poster let me know.

I have written frequently about the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic by the
Bay in SF. I am the cofounder of this and it is a free clinic for the
working uninsured. Even with the passage of the Affordable Care Act
many people will still not be eligible for health insurance or cannot
afford it because of the cost of the insurance ,deductibles and
copayments. I would like to encourage you to make a contribution and if
you do so before Jan 1 2015 I will match your contributions up to a
total of $5000. You can contribute on line at www.clinicbythebay.org.
or send a check made payable to Clinic by the Bay and mail it to me at
2311 Taraval St SF 94116. I need to know of your contribution by
December 31. Given mailing time let me know by return email of your
contribution.
Thank you.

Friday, December 12, 2014

One
of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act is a so called Cadillac
Tax for high benefit employer based health plans. A 40% excise tax will
be charged to employers for amounts in excess of the thresholds. The
thresholds for an individual is $10200 and for a family $27500.
Included in the threshold is
All premiums for paid by employer and employees for health insurance
Money contributed by employees and employers to a Flexible Spending
Account, Health Reimbursement Account and a Health Savings Account.
Money paid for employee assistance account.

This will take effect in 2018. It is projected to raise $80 billion over a 10 year period.

This is a major topic of discussion for union plans and for larger
companies but I have heard little discussion about the impact on small
businesses. Are you impacted by this? What will you do if you are
impacted?

Everyone knows the inefficiency of the health care system in the US.
One thing that has not been widely discussed is primary care. Did know
that primary physicians account for just 6% of the cost of our health
system but primary care accounts for almost 50% of the office visits.
Clearly specialist are performing task that should be done by primary
physicians. The problem is made worse in that we have a shortage of
Primary Care physicians and right now the picture is not bright for
bringing into the system more primary physicians. Not sure what the
answer is for this problem because people going into medicine are paid
significantly more as specialist.

For those of you in the Oakland area
see information about a training program helping small businesses
develop an Injury and Illness Prevention Program.

Greetings! We are announcing another "IIPP for Small Business" training ~
this time in Oakland. These trainings are specifically designed for
small businesses ~ less than 50 fte ~ to help ensure their IIPPs are
complete and up to date.

It will be Tuesday, January 20th from 1 - 5pm at the State Building
(1515 Clay Street, Room 11). Pre-registration is required. Please visit
our website for more information and to register: www.lohp.org/iipp
Thank you!
-Donna

Monday, December 08, 2014

Please find information on paid sick leave below from the
California Employers Association. You will see that putting up a poster is
required beginning Jan 1, 2015. Of particular importance is the recommendation
that you wait to change your employee handbook until more information is
received from the state.
Thank you Kim for sending this!

PAID SICK LEAVE LAW IN
CALIFORNIA

The Healthy Workplace, Healthy
Families Act of 2014 (AB 1522) was signed into law in 2014.
The basic intent of the law is to provide all employees with at least three
days or 24 hours of paid sick leave each year.

What does this mean for you as
an employer?
Effective January 1, 2015 ALL employers must post a Paid Sick Leave Notice in
their place of business. Effective July 1, 2015, ALL employers, both
public and private, will be required to provide paid sick leave to all of their
employees, with a few exceptions (unionized workers, home health care providers
and airline flight crews).

What does AB 1522 mean for
employees?
Under AB 1522, ALL employees who work in California for 30 or more days in a
calendar year will earn paid sick leave at a rate of one hour for every 30
hours worked! This accrual method begins as of 7/1/15 and employees must be
allowed to use any accrued time after 90 days of employment. (Former
employees that are re-hired within one year are entitled to have previously
accrued and unused paid sick days be reinstated.)

Employers will be allowed to limit an employee's use of paid sick days
to three (3) days per year and can cap accrual of paid sick leave at six
days.

Another option to the accrual method described above is to give employees all
of their paid sick leave up front. This has been called "front
loading", "the lump sum method", or "granted
leave". In each case, employers are permitted to grant three or more
days of paid sick leave at the start of the year to their employees to avoid
the administrative burdens of tracking accrual and carry over.

When can employees use AB 1522?
Employees can use AB 1522 to take paid leave for themselves or a family
member for preventive care or care of an existing health condition or
for specified purposes if they are a victim of domestic violence, sexual
assault or stalking.

Family members include the employee's parent, child, spouse, registered
domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, and sibling. Preventive care
would include annual physicals or flu shots. For partial days employers can require leave
be taken in two hours increments, but otherwise the
determination of how much time is needed is left to the employee.

Existing law already requires employers that provide paid sick time to allow
employees to use half of their yearly allotment for "kin
care" (care of their sick child, parent, spouse, registered domestic
partner). The new law does not repeal "kin care" but
expands it to include grandparents, grandchildren and siblings.

Employers with more generous plans will have to allow employees to use 1/2 of
the annual sick leave entitlement for Kin Care.

Posting, Notice and Record
Keeping Requirements
In addition to accounting for and providing the accrued leave, employers are
required to:

Display a Paid Sick Leave
Poster as of 1/1/2015

Include the amount of paid sick
leave accrued on employees~itemized wage statements

Retain all paid sick leave
records for three years

Use the revised Wage Theft
Prevention Act Notice on or before 7/1/15

What if I already provide paid sick leave for my employees?
California employers who already provide at least three days of paid sick time,
will now have additional administrative requirements, including:

Recording an employee's sick
leave balance on itemized wage statements, or another writing, on each pay
day.

Carry-over of accrued sick
leave with the cap of six days.

Documentation showing hours
worked as well as paid sick days accrued and used by an employee.

Rate of Pay
Employees should be paid their regular rate of pay for sick leave.
However, if your employee is paid different hourly rates, is paid a
commission, is paid by piece rate or flag rate, etc. then you must "Divide
employee's total wages, not including overtime premium pay, by the employee's
total hours worked in the full pay period of the prior 90 days of
employment" to determine an hourly rate to be paid for sick leave.

What's the good news?
Employers are not required to pay out accrued sick time at termination.

California Employers Association is here to assist you in navigating this new
law. We have webinars dedicated to this topic in December, February and again
in June. We can assist you in developing a Paid Sick Leave Policy that
fits your company's needs. By July 1, 2015 you will be informed and ready
to address this new law with your employees and in your employee handbook.

Recommendation and Source
Information
Don't change your policy or create a new one just yet! This bill was just
passed and there are still many unanswered questions. A list of frequently
asked questions was released the first week of December, and we anticipate
there will be more to come. For now, get informed, ask questions and watch for
our updates.

About Me

Small Business California is a proactive, non-partisan business advocate whose only agenda is the well being of California’s 3.2 million small businesses. Working for all small businesses for a better business environment, SB-Cal is responsive to the needs of small business owners.
Section 6033(e) Notice and Disclaimer:
Small Business California engages in lobbying activities on behalf of its members. Approximately 35% of your dues contribution goes to support these lobbying activities, and, we believe, is not deductible as a business expense under Section 162(e) of the Internal Revenue Code. Please consult your own accountant or tax attorney.